Woman of the Century/Mary Fleming Black

MARY FLEMING BLACK. BLACK, Mrs. Mary Fleming, author and religious worker, born in Georgetown, S. C., 4th August, 1848. Her father, Rev. W. H. Fleming, D. D., was a distinguished member of the South Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and died while pastor of Bethel Church, Charleston, S. C, in 1877. Her parents were both Charlestonians. Her mother, born Agnes A. Magill, was the daughter of Dr. William Magill, a prominent physician of that city. The education of Mrs. Black was begun in one of the city schools of Charleston. She was afterward graduated with honor in Spartanburg Female College, and later took a special course under the instructions of the faculty of Wofford Male College, of which Rev. A. M. Shipp, D.D., LL.D., was president. Soon after the completion of her studies she was married to Rev. W. S. Black, D. D., then a member of the South Carolina Conference. Mrs. Black soon displayed ability as a writer, her prose and verse productions appearing in various newspapers and periodicals. In 1882 she became the editor of the children's department of the Raleigh "Christian Advocate," of which her husband was one of the editors and proprietors. In that relation she continued until the Woman's Missionary Society of the North Carolina and Western North Carolina Conferences established a juvenile missionary paper, the "Bright Jewels," of which she was elected editor. That position she now holds, and she is known by the children as " Aunt Mao'" She is superintendent of the juvenile department and corresponding secretary of the Woman's Missionary Society of the North Carolina Conference, and is a member of the Woman's Board of Missions of the Methodist Episcopal Church South. She is a prominent and influential member of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union and of the King's Daughters of her State. She has three sons, two of whom have reached majority while she third is still in college, and one daughter, just entering womanhood. As the wife of one of the most able and popular ministers of the conference, she faithfully discharged the many and delicate duties of that position, with great acceptability to her husband's congregation. In addition to many duties and labors, she is rendering her husband valuable aid in the management of the Oxford Orphan Asylum, of which he is superintendent.